Mining firm BHP offers $25.7bn settlement for Brazil dam disaster

Australian company and its partner Vale unleashed largest spill of mining waste in history

The mining company BHP has said it hopes to secure a $25.7bn (20bn) settlement over the 2015 Samarco disaster, when the collapse of a dam left at least 19 people dead, 700 homeless and spread unprecedented levels of pollutants across the rivers and landscape of Brazil.

BHP said it had offered the settlement to the Brazilian authorities in partnership with fellow miner Vale, its 50:50 joint venture partner in a local subsidiary, Samarco.